One of my summertime childhood memories is eating the yummy watermelon sherbet dessert at Friendly’s restaurant. I loved it, so I decided to try to replicate this dessert for my own kids’ summertime memories! I made some “watermelon pie” for our 4th of July feast this year…to great success! My 4-year-old daughter loved it – like mother, like daughter! She saw it in the pan before I sliced it up…at that point it was still just a circle. When I started to cut the pie, making the watermelon slices, she exclaimed very earnestly, “Wow! It’s magic!”
The best part…watermelon pie was super simple to make! Here’s what I did!
Ingredients:
- Lime Sherbet
- Vanilla ice cream or Pineapple sherbet
- Red/Pink-colored sherbet…I couldn’t find this, so I bought Raspberry/Pineapple/Orange swirl sherbet, mixed it up with red food coloring and it was perfect!
- Mini chocolate chips
Directions:
1. For each flavor, you’ll let the sherbet/ice cream soften for a few minutes before using. The red sherbet should be mixed with the mini chocolate chips.
2. Use a round springform pan. You may want to line the bottom of the pan with wax paper or parchment paper if you plan to transfer the entire “pie” to another dish before serving. I served the slices on plates straight out of the freezer, so I didn’t line the pan. It’s actually cuter sliced!
3. Starting with lime, spread a ring of sherbet around the edge of the springform pan – about 2 inches high (or taller if you want!), and about 1-2 inches wide from the outside edge of the pan.
4. Put pan in freezer to harden lime layer.
5. Repeat step 3 with the vanilla, but make the layer much thinner – maybe 1/2 inch. Use a butter knife to flatten the top, even-ing out the lime with the vanilla. Put pan in freezer to harden again.
6. Repeat step 3 with the red/chocolate chip sherbet. Fill the rest of the pan, then use a butter knife to flatten the top. Freeze!
7. When it’s time to eat, run a knife around the edge of the pan before popping off the outside of the springform pan. Use a nice thin-blade knife to slice.
A funny tip…I served the watermelon pie on paper plates, but wanted to take a nice picture for this post, so I put my own slice on a real dish. It melted SO FAST on the real dish. I couldn’t even get a picture fast enough before it was a soggy mess! Even though paper plates aren’t as cute, the sherbet hardly melted at all. Go with paper!
Jane Maynard, writer and founder of This Week for Dinner, is a wife, mother to two beautiful girls and freelance graphic designer. Jane loves eating, which comes in handy for a food blog. Chocolate, cannoli, and H&H Bagels are her top foods of choice.
{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
I love that Friendly’s dessert too and have great memories of having it as a treat with my family. This one I will have to try.
This is so cute! Marking this to try out at our next party.
Oh this is SO cute!
What a great idea and it looks so delicious!! I have many memories of Friendlies 5 scoop resses peanut butter cup sundaes after school events!!
Maybe you could chill the plates first, if you wanted to use real ones.
What a cute idea!
Chocolate, cannoli, and H&H Bagels are you fav foods? Oh well we would be the best of friends! :)
Thanks for the very cute idea!
i can remember my grandma making this when i was little but she used a large metal bowl for the shape. then she would turn it upside down, take the bowl off, and then cut it! years later, i even made one for my best friends bridal shower as her kitchen theme was watermelons!
thanks for sharing your way; i think i will try it for just my family of 4!
That is super cute. What a great idea. Thanks.
YUM! Thanks for sharing! This sounds good and is very cute!
Love this idea.
Wow! That looks great. If it tasted like watermelon it would be as close to perfect as you can get!
Truly a fantastic project for home and family to take part in. Theres nothing that brings family together like dessert.
Omigosh, that is such a cute idea!
thanks for all your comments! I’m glad everyone likes the idea! :)
so fun there are other friendly’s memories people out there! all this friendly’s talk makes me want a chicken sandwich and fries…mmm…
vanessa – you have excellent taste. ;)
monkiesmom – I saw something similar to what your grandmother did on marthastewart – such a cute idea! you’re right, though…this is a little nicer if you don’t need to make as much, which is why I did it this way. but maybe one day I’ll try the bowl technique if I’m doing a big party.
watermelon guy…how fun would it be if I could actually find watermelon flavored sherbet?! yum!
Oh Jane, I love it. Yummmm.
So cute!
This is SO cute! I’ve bookmarked this to make before the summer is over. Love it!
Oh goodness, how cute is that?! I love it!
This is a great idea!
This is SO, SO cute!
This definitely has “summer” written all over it! I’ll be honest, when I first saw the picture, I figured it was sherbet, but I was baffled as to why you would mix in actual watermelon seeds?! Threw me for a loop! Thanks for the recipe. :) It’s sooo cute!
this looks so cute and yummy!
What a great idea for little ones to help with (and enjoy too)! This seems like a creative and yummy summer time treat for sure!
This is awesome! We are making it for dinner and my mom is possibly going to make it for her new neighbors. It is so cute!! Thanks for sharing!
wow! I just popped over here to check in and can’t believe all the comments. a big fat YOU’RE MOST WELCOME for sharing my idea…but more importantly, THANK YOU for all your nice words! :)
Oh, I remember what a treat it was to get that ice cream at Friendly’s too. : )
You did such a great job making your own!
It’s a good thing I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow, because I just have to pick up sherbert and try this.
thanks for sharing!
how fun, think I’ll try that. we just went to a party with a “homemade” ice cream cake. Seems they have a tradition for coming up with wild cake ideas. This year – cookies and cream ice cream with cornbread on top and bottom, topped with blue tinted ice cream. Big hit.
That is so cute! I’m going to do that today for my friend’s birthday. Too bad they don’t have watermelon flavored sherbert. Or sorbet.
That is soooo cute… I must remember to get some sorbets next time I’m in the supermarket! My 4 year old would love it :)
I can’t wait to try them, thanks for sharing!
OH THIS IS GREAT! I loved this one at Friendly’s but never thought to make it. Thanks for the fun idea.
Wow, this sounded weird until I looked up the American meaning of Sherbet… if that was a cake made of what the rest of us call sherbet, it’d be a flavourtaste from the moon.
I know I’m posting to this thread a little late, but for those of you considering making this in the summer: Schwan’s has a watermelon sherbet that comes complete with candy “seeds” already in it. And it’s that great watermelon red color. It’s only offered seasonally, though, so I’ll be anxiously awaiting it’s return next summer so I can try this great recipe!
thanks, aimee! that is fantastic! :)
I line a round stainless bowl with lime sherbet and some lime sherbet darkened with green food coloring in stripes, then the pineapple and/or vanilla layer and then the middle. I turn it out on a chilled – repeat CHILLED – serving platter. It looks like a halved watermellon and is really fun when you cut into it.
I’m not a cook at all, but definitely think I could swing these this summer! So bright and yummy looking!! I’ve featured it in a DIY roundup on my site today. Thanks for the great ideas!!
Holy cow. I love all of your recipes, and this one is super exciting because I loved Friendly’s one! My kids are gonna love this.
Thanks for your watermelon pie recipe. I want to try it as you wrote it, but I also want to try dissolving watermelon jello in boiling water and then adding vanilla ice cream and mini chocolate chips for the filling. I think it would give the watermelon flavor and still keep the creamy texture and look. I’ll let you know when I try it. Again thanks for the recipe.
please do let us know how that goes, lynn – sounds like a great idea!
My mom used to make that every 4th of July when we were younger! I made it for a few years after I moved out too, it always got tons of compliments!
Very cute and delicious! You could freeze the real plate so the piece of “pie” doesn’t melt so fast:)
So Sweet and Yummmy :P
I’m Australian, and to us “Sherbet” is a fizzy powder, so when I first read the recipe I thought “How did she get the sherbet to set?”. However after overcoming the linguistic difficulties I have decided I simply must try this :P
ha ha! that is so funny! love it! and happy that you were able to solve the linguistic mystery so you can partake properly! :)
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